


First Thoughts

by kexinzz (lilacxmh)



Category: Fanxyred, QCYN2, THE9, Youth With You, 偶像练习生 | Idol Producer (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Punk, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Mutual Pining, Pining, Punk Rock, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 06:00:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24379852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilacxmh/pseuds/kexinzz
Summary: KEXIN ! Harry Potter AU !Liu Yuxin is the school Quidditch star and Keran has a hopeless crush. Or not so hopeless ?
Relationships: Dai Meng/Xu Jiaqi, Lin Fan/Liu Lingzi (Idol Producer), Liu Yuxin/Lu Keran
Comments: 19
Kudos: 56





	1. Chapter 1

November sunlight streamed through the chiffon curtains of the 7th year Gryffindor girl’s dormitory, waking up the only girl still left asleep in the room. Lu Keran yawned, stretching her body out across the white sheets like a kitten. She couldn’t bring herself to check the time. ‘Just five more minutes … ‘she mumbled to herself as she rolled back over, face down on the pillows.

It had felt like only seconds had passed before Keran felt a tug on her duvet. Opening her eyes and scrambling to get the blanket back around her body, she saw Linfan’s face staring back at her.

 _‘What do you want?’_ she grumbled. It was the first Saturday of term and Keran had been looking forward to relishing the extra hours in bed. She’d planned to have a leisurely breakfast, maybe a trip to Hogsmeade in the afternoon and then catch up on her potion’s homework. It was her final year after all and the work wouldn’t do itself. Clearly however, Linfan had other ideas.

 _‘Keran, it’s almost 9am!_ ’ she yelled, her normally smiling face now masked with a look of agitation. ‘The first Quidditch match of the season starts in an hour and I promised Lingzi I’d save us the best seats”! Keran groaned. She just couldn’t understand Linfan or her Ravenclaw girlfriend Liu Lingzi’s obsession with the sport. Who wanted to spend their Saturday morning watching a bunch of try-hard jocks fly around a pitch anyway?

 _‘Comeeeee onnnn Keran’_ Linfan pleaded, trying to give her best persuasive look to the half-asleep girl. _‘It’s our last-first game EVER! You seriously can’t miss it! .. Besides, if you come, I’ll share the cauldron cakes I baked last night?’_

 _‘Fine … fine …’_ Keran sighed, swinging her legs out of the four-poster bed. Linfan knew her too well, she could NEVER resist her best-friend’s baking. Keran remembered fondly the first time they’d met, aged 11, in the Gryffindor common room after they’d both been assigned the house during the sorting ceremony. As soon as they’d been left alone by the well-meaning prefect assigned to guide them up from the Great Hall, the small brown-haired girl had pulled out a giant tin full of cupcakes and nervously offered one to her.

_‘Fancy a cupcake? ... my mum made me pack them ... she said they’d help with making friends or something. Sorry they’re a bit ... uhhh … squashed. I’m not sure the train up did them any good’._

Since then the two girls had basically been inseparable. Keran guessed she owed it to the past 7 years of friendship to give in, _just this once_ , to her friend’s athletic whims. Quidditch match it would be!

Fifty minutes later, Keran found herself packed onto the school bleachers sandwiched between Linfan and a gaggle of Hufflepuff fourth-years. Even though Gryffindor wasn’t even playing this match,

Linfan was already standing up on her seat, waving and cheering in anticipation along with the other students. Lingzi and she had bought matching red lion hats from the concession stand and, while Keran could admit that the couple looked cute together, the hat’s tendency to emit a loud roar every 30 seconds was driving her a little crazy. Keran stared down at her hands. It’s not as if she hated Quidditch, she just didn’t see the point in it. The celebrity status of the teams’ prized players also bugged her. They were treated like royalty around the school by everyone, including the professors. Keran had even heard a rumour that Ravenclaw captain, Kiki Xu, had been formally exempt from taking any charms test for the entire season !

 _‘Stop moping Keke!_ ’ Linfan shouted at her over the roars of her clearly overexcited hat. _‘At least it’s Slytherin playing today. You know what that means don’t you? You’ll be able to see ~~~ her ~~~ pla-‘_. Linfan’s words were cut off by a sharp elbow from Keran, whose face had turned a violent shade of pink. She couldn’t begin to think what Linfan was implying. The idea of her even remotely having a crush on **ANY** member of the Slytherin Quidditch team was simply ridiculous.

Linfan and Lingzi’s giggles of glee were drowned out abruptly however, by a tremendous fanfare. Finally standing up to join her friends in cheering, Keran watched as the Ravenclaw and Slytherin teams walked onto the pitch to huge cheers. Not out of any fault of her own, her eyes were automatically drawn to own player.

18-year-old Slytherin seeker Liu Yuxin, Hogwart’s most prized Quidditch player and all around heartthrob, walked with her team to the middle of the pitch. The autumn sun caught on the silver chain she was wearing and on the silver cap of her broomstick. She lifted one ring-laden hand and swept it through her short hair. ‘I guess when you look like that, no one really questions why you’re wearing so much jewellery to play a contact sport’ Keran thought. She wanted to roll her eyes and look away so badly but somehow, she just couldn’t. Keran felt her cheeks get hot, watching the other girl gracefully start warming up with her teammates. She pulled her eyes away from the pitch and glanced around the stands. Clearly, she wasn’t the only who felt like this.

Around the stand’s, adoring girls were screaming at the top of their lungs for the Slytherin star player. Yuxin’s fan-club was well known to be a forceful presence around the school, often waiting outside the Slytherin common room to catch a glance of the girl or giggling to each other in the hallways when she walked past. Even if she did have ... admittingly ... an aesthetic attraction to her classmate, Keran thought, there was no chance in hell with all these admirers. Besides, the two girls had been in the same year group since Yuxin had joined the school three years ago, and they’d never exchanged so much as passing words. Keran still remembered the time she had been approached in the corridor between classes by Yuxin and her friend, Kong Xueer. She’d almost fainted in panic, but it had just been them handing out flyers for some show Xueer had been doing, leaving her with a feeling of stupidity at even hoping that Yuxin would want to talk to her.

A sharp whistle broke Keran’s train of ever-depressing thoughts. Madame Hooch opened the heavy boxes with a loud clang’ and the Quaffles, Bludgers and tiny golden snitch were released into the sky. Keran watched as Yuxin sped off into the deep blue sky, getting smaller and smaller to the crowds on the stand as she went higher, in search of the snitch. At least, in a funny sort of way, she could see her now. Another spec amongst the rows and rows of students.


	2. 2.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuxin and Keran take a charm class together.

To Keran, the game seemed to drag on for hours. Yuxin had become just another dot in the sky buzzing with players, occasionally dropping lower in her search for the snitch. Keran guessed this wasn’t her only reasoning however, the other girl seemed to relish in the whoops of cheers which greeted her every fly over the stands.

Finally, the game abruptly came to an end with the shrill sounds of Madame Hooch’s whistle. Emerging from the cloud above, Kiki Xu raced down and across the pitch to triumphant cheers from her Ravenclaw supporters and teammates. The dark haired girl landed gracefully onto the grass, holding the snitch up in one fist for the spectators approval with a gleeful smile on her face. Keran watched, with interest, as a girl covered wearing a very large, very elaborate Ravenclaw hat ran down from the stands and onto the pitch. Kiki’s, now blushing, face was now hidden from view as she was enveloped in a tight hug.

  
 _‘Cute right ?_ ’ Linfan whispered to her over the roars of the crowd. _‘That’s Dai Meng, I’ve heard they’ve been dating since like … fifth year or something’_. Keran shrugged, the two girls DID look cute together, but her eyes were more focused on the other side of the pitch.

The Slytherin team stood awkwardly, huddled around their captain. Keran watched, fixated, as they shook hands respectfully with the Ravenclaw team, faces masked with disappointment. The two teams split, walking off to their respective changing tents positioned on either sides of the stand. Keran couldn’t help draw back into her seat as Yuxin passed her block, but she couldn’t draw her eyes away.

The girl, who normally gave the impression of nothing but confidence, looked incredibly sad. Lost in these thoughts, she almost might have missed it. Staring down at the player on the pitch, Keran was confronted by a pair of brown eyes staring back. Realising what was going on she blinked, quickly looking away. Her body felt hot and cold simultaneously, she couldn’t believe what had just happened. Pushing past the waves of embarrassment and gathering every ounce of courage, she shyly glanced back down at the pitch. Liu Yuxin was nowhere to be seen.

\------

By Thursday afternoon, the memory of Ravenclaw’s epic defeat on Saturday had faded from Keran’s mind but the look of Yuxin’s eyes staring into hers hadn’t. Keran had basically thought of nothing else truth be told. She knew, reasonably, that their shared glance hadn’t meant anything, but it was still so hard to not remember how pretty the brown eyes of the star player had been. Keran guessed that she’d finally have to confront these feelings this afternoon, when the first charms class of the week rolled around. The one class she took that she shared with the Slytherins. She nervously checked her appearance in the reflection of one of the corridor’s stained-glass windows, adjusting her school tie and robes. _‘Well …_ _there’s nothing to be done about it now’._

\---

The charms classroom was packed by the time Keran walked in. She stared around, looking desperately for an empty seat next to a familiar face … why did Linfan have to drop charms after O.W.Ls ?. A look around the heaving room told her that there was only one place left to sit, in the corner, right next to Liu Yuxin.

Yuxin barley seemed to notice her as she dropped her heavy school bag onto the floor beside the desk and pulled out her copy of ‘Quintessence: A Quest’. The other girl seemed to be absorbed in her own thoughts, staring out of the small latticed window at the Hogwart’s grounds. Something deep in Keran’s stomach plummeted. She didn’t know what she had hoped for to be honest, it was stupid of her to hope that someone as distant as Liu Yuxin would of even noticed her at all. Sighing, she opened her textbook to page thirty and fixed her eyes firmly onto Professor Flitwick as he started to explain the most effective methods when to practicing non-verbal spells.  
As the clocked ticked forward, the classroom, high up in the South Tower as it was, became increasingly stuffy. The air was filled with drowsiness and many of the students around Keran started to remove their heavy black robes and loosen their house ties. She tried her best not to stare as Yuxin as the girl rolled the sleeves up on her white school shirt, revealing her tanned forearms. Keran wondered how it would feel to be feel those arms around her waist, to feel be held tightly in them and kissed by their owner.

Professor Flitwick’s shrill voice punctured Keran’s train of thought abruptly, announcing the end of today’s class. Around her, students stated noisly packing up their heavy textbooks, chattering amongst each other about how difficult non-verbal spells were, the expected ‘Shrieking Sirens’ concert in Hogsmeade later that week and the current rumour that head boy, Cai Xukun was had been spotted making out with Luna Qin behind the Herbology Greenhouses. Keran began to do the same and had just slung her school bag over her shoulder, ready to leave, when she felt a light tap on her shoulder. Looking around, she saw Yuxin, still standing behind her in the quickly emptying classroom.

 _‘Keran right ? So you heard what Flitwick said ?_ Yuxin said, not waiting for a response from her desk mate. _‘We’ve got to spend some time with our desk-mate over the weekend practicing non-verbal spells together?’_

 _‘Oh …uhh yeah’_ was the only thing Keran could come out with. The prospect of spending hours alone with Yuxin in one of the empty school classrooms seemed almost too intimidating to face. Suddenly she wished never even come to the class in the first place … if she had known this would of happened, Keran thought she’d of rather stood at the back the entire time.

 _‘Listen … ‘_ Yuxin replied awkwardly, filling the silence that was building up between the two girls. ‘ _My friend, Kong Xueer, ... she’s having a little concert with her band, the ‘Shrieking Sirens’ tomorrow night in Hogsmeade … if you want to come, I could get us tickets easily? We could get to know each other better and then practice together on Saturday? Flitwick does say that its better to practice with someone you know when first starting non-verbal charms !_

Keran felt like she’d been winded … going with Liu Yuxin to a concert?? What kind of world was this ? ‘ Ummm …’ she muttered. ‘Sure, yeah ... that would be fun! Would you mind if I bought a couple of friends with me ? They’re just huge fans of the ‘Sirens’ and I know they’d LOVE to go’. ‘ _That’s good’,_ Keran thought. _‘Yep, the presence of Linfan and Zhang Yu would definitely remove any ~date~ vibes … perfect!’_

A look of disappointment clouded the other witches’ face. Yuxin seemed almost upset at the idea that other’s would be accompanying them to Hogsmeade. _‘Sure …_ ’ she answered, staring down at her feet. _‘Yeah sure, I’ll make sure I ask Xueer for two extra tickets for the show. Alright ... see you at 8pm tomorrow, I’ll meet you outside the Gryffindor common room’._

With that, Liu Yuxin shrugged her bag over her shoulder and headed out of the classroom, brushing past the group of Hufflepuff sixth-year girls who had been waiting outside the classroom for her, giggling. Lu Keran was left standing alone in the empty classroom, trying to digest what had just occurred.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> PUNK CONCERT DATE !

Friday seemed to stretch out into entirety. Keran struggled to keep focused in classes all day, almost letting her Murtlap Essence bubble over in potions class. Linfan and Zhang Yu had been overjoyed when she’d told them of their tickets to the concert, but Keran still couldn’t help feeling conflicted about it. _Why had Yuxin seemed so disappointed when she’d asked to bring friends?_ , _Did she immediately regret inviting her ?_

Eventually, when 8pm rolled around, Keran and Linfan walked out of the portrait hole which lead into the Gryffindor common room. Zhang Yu was outside, slightly red in the face from the steep walk up the castle stairs from the Hufflepuff common room, standing next to a very awkward looking Liu Yuxin. Keran had to admit, the girl looked even hotter out of school robes. She hadn’t really pegged Yuxin as the ~punk type~ and started curiously at the girl’s dark black eye-makeup and tight, black leather trousers.

_‘What ?_ ’ Yuxin smirked, clearly in reply to Keran’s fascination. _‘It IS a punk show, you’ve got to dress the part!’_. Keran looked down and around at her and her friend’s chosen outfits. Neither Linfan, Zhang Yu or herself looked particularly punk … at least Linfan’s jeans had rips in them … that was a start she guessed.

\---

The walk down from the castle to Hogsmeade passed without any major embarrassment. Yuxin walked slightly ahead of the small group, leading the way through the November dusk. Although it was autumn, the night was unseasonably warm and besides, Keran’s body felt alive with heat. The fear she’d felt the whole day had vanished into excitement and anticipation. _‘After all,’_ she thought, ‘ _It’s not every Friday night that I get to escape the castle and go to a concert, even if it is just so my non-verbal spells practice goes better’._

By the time the four girls had reached Three Broomsticks, the pub was already packed with magical folk ready to enjoy the show. All of the furniture had been pushed out of sight, leaving a large raised stage area and standing pit exposed and the speakers, no doubt magically bewitched for extra volume and bass, were playing a selection of the Siren’s greatest hits to rile up the crowd. Yuxin dragged the others through the building crowd, finding a perfect spot right by the stage, before running off backstage to wish Xueer and the band good luck.

It was only a few seconds after she had returned that a loud hush fell over the crowd. The lights of the inn fell dark and a piercing guitar wail cut through the now erupting cheers of the audience. Illuminated on stage in red light, three people appeared; Keran identified the middle one, clutching a microphone, as Kong Xueer but somehow couldn’t place the other two. Apparently sensing her confusion, Yuxin leaned over to whisper-shout into her ear.

‘ _The witch with the spiky hair on the bass ? That’s Shangguan Xi'ai .. but everyone calls her SGXA on stage ! You probably recognise her from school, she was the first Hufflepuff to win the transfiguration cup before she graduated … now she manages the Sirens as well as preforming!’_. Keran nodded in agreement, taking it all in. Truthfully, she’d never seen a witch with better eyebrows in her life! There was something about SGXA that made her instantly comfortable in the unfamiliar concert environment. How could someone have such a powerful stage presence but still seem so friendly?

_‘The boy on the drums’_ Yuxin continued, pointing at a skinny man with a mop of black hair covering his eyes, ‘ _That’s Xu Minghao but his stage name is EIGHT … He left Hogwarts a couple years ago, now works as a fashion model … he’s the muse for Masion Capenoir actually ... really coo-!’_.

The rest of the girl’s words were drowned out by deafening roars as the Shrieking Siren’s began their first song ‘Hex for the Best’. Soon, Keran, Linfan and Zhang Yu were jumping up and down with the rest of the crowd. The buzz in the corridors and classrooms were correct, The Siren’s were truly incredible … Keran couldn’t believe that Xueer was still at Hogwarts! The show was so breath-taking in fact, that she had almost, but not quite, forgotten the feeling of Yuxin pressed up against her, whispering in her ear. Suddenly everything felt very overwhelming. The butter-beers Linfan had bought at the bar were getting to her head … she needed to take a breather.

She looked over at Linfan and Zhang Yu who were now jumping around to the beat with a couple of warlocks, one of whom had an extremely long beard dyed the most electric shade of pink. Yuxin seemed similarly absorbed, staring up at the stage, singing along word for word and cheering loudly for her best friend. Quietly, and without notice, Keran snuck back through the hordes of people to the back of pit and slipped through the door marked ‘FOR WITCHES ONLY’.

Now alone, she pressed her burning head against the cool mirror and took a deep breath. ‘ _Why wouldn’t this stupid fucking crush just go away ...?’_ She almost felt guilty, Yuxin had been nothing but kind and welcoming to her despite the two being little more than strangers. _Why couldn’t she just stop seeing her as something more than friend Yuxin clearly only wanted to be ? … anyway ... who even knows if she likes girls or not ?... who was she kidding ? Yuxin had had the same undercut since she joined the school, OF COURSE she was gay. If anything that just made it more tragic._

Splashing some cold water onto her face, Keran was about to leave the bathroom when the saloon-style doors were pushed open. Accompanied by a burst of sound from the main stage, Yuxin walked in.

_‘Keran_ ’ She asked, looking slightly worried, _‘You alright? … What happened out there ?’_. Keran turned back to the mirror, looking away. She wasn’t really the type to get insecure about her looks easily but she didn’t want Yuxin to see her like this; face blotchy from the mirror and eye makeup running slightly.

‘ _Keran ...’_ Yuxin said again, this time softer … quieter. She stepped closer to the taller girl until they were both standing parallel, looking into the same mirror together. Keran watched as Yuxin slowly turned to face her, reaching a delicate hand up to her cheek. Attentively, Yuxin brushed away most of the eyeliner smudges residing on Keran’s cheeks. If it wasn’t for Yuxin’s other hand, resting on the nape of her neck to steady herself, Keran could have sworn that the girl wasn’t touching her at all, she was stroking her cheek as if she was made out of glass.

Once the dark smudges had mostly gone, Yuxin seemed reluctant to remove her hands from Keran’s neck and cheek. The two seemed almost frozen in shock, only just aware of the position they had now found themselves in. _‘God’,_ Keran thought, her brain suddenly empty of thoughts and her eyes transfixed onto Yuxin’s perfect pale pink lips , ‘ _GOD ... she’s really so pretty’._


	4. 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> KISS .. KISS .KISS ....! also sorry for the slightly shorter update, I don't have my laptop atm so writing is hard right now ! <3 ...

The two girls stared at each other, unblinking. Time felt suspended, frozen in the muggy in of the bathroom. Seeming to consider her every move with intense seriousness, Yuxin drew closer.

Moving her hand’s up to cup the other taller girl’s face, Yuxin softly pressed her lips against Keran’s hesitantly. A split second went by, just long enough for Keran’s heart to flutter in her chest, before Yuxin pulled away.

_‘God … S-Sorry’_ she stammered, turning around to face the bathroom door, one hand still resting on the ledge of the sink. _‘Honestly, I don’t know what got into me, I think it’s the alcohol_ …’

Without thinking, without any similar nervousness, Keran grabbed a hold of the shorter girl’s toned shoulder. She pulled Yuxin towards her, both hands now round the girl’s neck. Yuxin’s eyes were closed tight in anticipation, her cheeks pink and flushed.

Unlike the first, this kiss didn’t have any aura of hesitation. Keran doubted if she had ever felt more alive, more spontaneous, rawer. She knew the other girl felt the same … she could feel her heart beating a mile a minute through the thin layers of fabric separating their bodies, pressed up against each other.

Yuxin was the one who broke away first, reaching up to run her hand’s through Keran’s mop of dark brown hair. Keran felt the heat of lips on her neck, painting a pattern of quickly-fading pressure across the pale skin. Leaning back against the sink, she let her head roll back and her hands travel across Yuxin’s muscular back and under her shirt.

The warmth of the girl’s skin under her fingers mixed with the feeling of the love bites already forming on her neck and collarbones was almost too much for Keran to handle. She couldn’t say how long she had even been in the bathroom at this point, the memories of the concert seemed so very distant.

As if on que, the loud hum of the Siren’s music fell silent to the loudest cheer of the night. The two girls looked at each other. The show was over, soon the dingy ladies bathroom would be heaving with concert goers and their friends would be looking for them. Reluctantly pulling apart, they silently walked back into the main venue … Keran desperately trying to fix her messy hair and Yuxin hurriedly pulling her shirt back down.

\-------

Half-an-hour later, seated backstage for the after-party on a battered leather sofa, Keran could barely focus on the conversation going on around her. Yuxin seemed unphased, congratulating Xueer and talking seriously with a group of purple-haired warlocks. Keran couldn’t understand it … _the girl seemed to be a master at controlling her emotions even with the many fire whisky shots Xa’ai was handing out to people …_

Despite her half-hearted attempts at feigning normality over the following hour, by one in the morning Keran had had enough. She wanted nothing more than to crawl back into her four-poster bed in the Gryffindor dormitory. Quietly, she excused herself from the room, walking out into the cool night air.

The Three Broomsticks had arranged a series of enchanted carriages to ferry the concertgoers back to their homes but Keran knew that taking one would make her much more conspicuous to the Hogwarts’s caretaker Argus Flich. The school imposed a strict curfew of midnight for the older students and Flich loved nothing more than to catch students in the hallways, eager to give them many weeks of detention.

Sighing, Keran wandered further down the Hogsmeade streets, past the closed shops and crowded bars. Once out of the village and onto the hills of Scottish heather which surrounded the school, she finally felt calm.

\----

Once back in her dormitory Keran changed into her pyjamas and climed into her bed, careful not to wake the other sleeping girls. Now the only bed left empty in the spacious tower room was Linfan’s … Keran smiled to herself, remembering how she had left her best friend back at the Three Broomsticks; standing on one of the large oak tables, clutching a bottle of Fire-whiskey and singing along to cheesy 80s hits with Zhang Yu, Xueer and Xai’ai. A knot forming in her stomach, Keran couldn’t help but also remember Yuxin, standing in the corner of the room, looking slightly exasperated at her friend’s antics.

The idea of spending the entirety of the day studying alone with Yuxin seemed overwhelmingly impossible. _How was she to focus on non-verbal charms when the two of them had kissed just hours earlier?_

Rolling over to open her desk drawer, Keran pulled out the small hand mirror she kept on-top of her notebooks. By the light of her orangey desk lamp she stared at the bruises on her neck, now all a deep crimson colour. She wasn’t looking forward Marco’s reaction the next day at breakfast, the other girl had been waiting for something to tease her friend about since Keran had laughed at the handmade scarf she had knitted for Lingzi. The clashing colours of orange and bright blue paired with the potato motifs Marco had stitched had really made for an eyesore of knitwear. Still, she would be grateful for that scarf in present circumstances … she was sure it would be perfect for distracting attention away from the marks Yuxin had left.


	5. 5.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for taking so long with the update !!!

It seemed like she’d barely closed her eyes before she was rudely awoken by the sharp tones of her alarm clock. Burying her head under the duvet to block out the beams of sunlight shooting through the latticed dorm window, Keran groaned. Her head was still racing from the night before … although she wasn’t sure whether it was the butterbeer ... the kiss ... or a combination of both

Pulling on a pair of ripped jeans, large black turtleneck jumper and combat boots, she padded down the stairs and across the Gryffindor common room to the porthole door. Although it was still fairly early, Keran knew all too well that the freshly baked croissants always went incredibly quickly on Saturday morning breakfasts. She hoped there would be some left … she needed some buttery, flaky fuel to get her through today.

She’d almost gotten halfway down the stone staircase when a voice called out behind her.

‘ _Keran ??? Wait up … !’_

The voice was unmistakably belonged Liu Yuxin … she’d know it anywhere. Keran stopped dead in her tracks, letting a gaggle of fellow Gryffindors barge past her down the staircase.

Turning around she saw the other girl rushing down the stairs towards her, slightly breathless. Honestly, the sight of her made Keran feel a little bit ill … the fact that anyone could look so fresh-faced and well-manicured after a night of punk music and drunken kisses seemed ridiculous. She wouldn’t be surprised if Yuxin had employed a special team of house elves to make sure she looked impeccable each day … _Maybe that was part of the star Quidditch player service … ?_

_‘Keran ! … I thought .. .well I don’t know ..’._ Yuxin had finally caught up with her and was standing just one step above her, for once the taller out of the pair. _‘I was wondering … would you like to have breakfast now ? .. you know … before we start practicing ..’_

Reaching up instinctively to the nape of her neck, feeling the dull pressure last nights kisses had left, Keran looked up to meet Yuxin’s piercing gaze. Quickly realising what she was doing, she dropped her arm back down to her side but it was too late. Yuxin’s cheeks grew a violent shade of pink. She looked up at the ceiling, almost as if she was too shy to meet Keran’s gaze back.

‘ _Uhhh … yeah ! Yeah . That sounds great ! .. I love breakfast ahahha. .. I mean .. I love the breakfast here, it’s great …especially the croissants !’_ Keran garbled back into silence that had fallen between the two _._

_So embarrassing …_ she thought, but at-least Yuxin seemed to apricate it. The girl chuckled quietly, dragging Keran by the elbow of her sweater further down the staircase to the Great Hall. 

\-----

Breakfast had passed without any major embarrassments. Of course people had started … it was pretty unusual to see two members of different houses eating together at mealtimes but Yuxin had seemed utterly unphased sat at the Gryffindor house table, stuffing herself full of strawberry toast and engaging in a lengthy conversation with a perplexed Linfan about her weight gain goals for the season.

Keran wished they could have just stayed sat there all day. It was so easy to talk to Yuxin in that setting, surrounded by other people … enough going on to temporarily distract them both from the agitated and admittedly flirtatious energy between the two girls.

Still, as the clock hands clicked forwards more and more people began drifting away from the breakfast table and by twelve it became clear that it was time to leave.

Following Yuxin’s lead, Keran followed her along the tapestry corridor and into an empty classroom which the sign on the door said was normally use for Advanced Arithmancy.

Now both alone, surrounded by nothing but empty desks, chairs and ancient-looking arithmancy books, the two were all but forced to stare at each other once again.

Nervously, Keran pulled out her copy of ‘Quintessence: A Quest’, flicking through the book to find suitable spells to practice.

_\----_

Almost an hour had passed before the girls decided to take a break. An hour filled with hard, and, admittingly, painful practice of non-verbal disarming. Keran prided herself on being a stellar student, but Liu Yuxin really was talented at charms … she had landed on her back with her wand flying out of her hand more times in the hour than she wanted to admit.

Both resting against the base of the classroom wall, the two girls lolled against each other in the muggy silence. Yuxin had produced a flask of ice cold water from her backpack and the two took turns taking sky-sipping the drink.

Sneaking her head around to glance at the other girl, whose eyes were closed in rest, Keran swallowed a gulp.

Yuxin looked so beautiful like this … face flushed and forehead beaded with sweat from the intense practice. She couldn’t help but think how easy it would be to reach forward and kiss her, just like the night before. _Would she kiss her back this time?_ she wondered ... 

As tentative as Yuxin had been the night previously, Keran drew her head forwards. Yuxin’s eyes were still closed and Keran was now so close she could see every one of her long, delicate eyelashes.

When their lips finally met, Keran could taste the girl’s sweat on her upper lip as well as the sweet taste of the strawberries she’d eaten for breakfast.

Only once she pulled away did Yuxin opened her eyes, the two locking in stare for the third time that day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> twt - @kex9n


End file.
